What is Marketing?

The fundamental objectives are the same for any Marketing Plan, whether online or offline focused:

 "The management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably."

It’s important to keep your Online Marketing Plan short; it’s more likely to get referred to regularly if it is only a few pages long.

Here are the key areas we think you should cover.

1. Background

What is the current status of your website? Is it a new start up, or an existing site, in which case how has it been performing?  You should analyse profitability of your online marketing to date.  You should perform a competitor analysis and a SWOT analysis.

2. Goals & Objectives

Try to condense to a sentence or two. Explain your top level goal. This may be acquisition, retention, driving more sales or a mixture of these. 

Under each objective you should identify specific targets that need to be achieved in order to meet the goal. Online marketing objectives may include: revenue, new and returning visitor targets, conversion rates, number of sales.

3. Online Marketing Strategy

The Online Marketing Strategy is the overall approach that is going to be used to meet the aims and objectives of the plan.  We recommend detailing the channels you will use and the individual contribution you expect from these channels.  You will need to consider the impact of offline channels as well.  Here is a list of online channels to consider:

Click here to see an example of a value/visit breakdown for these channels.

4. Tactics & Budget

Here you will define the specific actions for each online channel.  We recommend creating a Marketing Plan detailing spend and monthly projections for each channel and all channels.

5. Communications Plan

Normally prepared as a chart, broken down by month, it gives a clear view when online marketing activities/campaigns will take place.  You should include offline activities here as well. This is vital to ensure a coordinated approach.

6. Resources

Who will do what, and how much will it cost? 

This can include physical resource, staffing, suppliers and budgets – basically every resource that is going to be required in order to implement the Online Marketing Plan.

7. Controls

Every marketing activity needs to be measured, and fortunately online marketing is much more measurable than offline marketing. We recommend measuring individual channel performance monthly; across all of your goals e.g. site visits, leads, sales, orders, revenue.  This will enable you to see how you are tracking against your forecast and give you an annualised view.

For more information on Online Marketing Plans, call or email us: 09 889 8020 or online@steer.co.nz

Useful Online Marketing Links

International Online Marketing >>
The Online Customer Journey >>
Online Marketing Terminology >>